


that was then and we have taken different roads

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Community: comment_fic, F/M, Rare Pair, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 09:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8707645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Caitlin attends Joe's wedding to someone else.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Theme: sad endings  
> Prompt : The Flash, Caitlin Snow/Joe West, She attends his wedding to another woman.

For the briefest of moments when she wakes up that morning, Caitlin considers not going to the wedding. Considers calling Cisco and telling him not to pick her up, blaming food poisoning or a migraine or any sudden but not life threatening ailment, something that would not result in him having to come over and take care of her. 

She considers it. 

But then she shakes herself, throws off the covers and gets out of bed, has her shower and styles her hair, makes sure her makeup is on point without being too much, gets into the dress that she bought specially for today and she's waiting at the door when Cisco knocks. 

It's not, she thinks, that she's not happy for Joe and Cecile. She is. Cecile's a nice woman, a good woman and Caitlin knows, more than anyone else, including Barry and Iris, how lonely Joe was, and for how long. After all, once upon a time, that had been the very thing that had brought them together, two lonely souls looking for a connection, one that they'd found in each other, even if only briefly. 

She's happy that Joe is happy and she knows he is, she can see that in his smile. It's just that it seems wrong for her to be here, sitting in the congregation of his wedding when she knows what that very smile feels like when it's pressed against her lips, when it moves down her body. It's wrong for her to sit here and remember in glorious, technicolor detail what his hands feel like when they move over and inside her, what his beard feels like against the sensitive skin on the inside of her thighs, what it feels like to doze in his arms and hear the beat of his heart under her ear. She shouldn't know what his sweat tastes like as it cools on their skin, how the muscles of his back ripple as her hands run down them, what her name sounds like in his throat as he groans his release. 

Call her old fashioned if you like but it seems wrong to know all that about the groom when you're not the bride. 

She does her best to push the memories away, not to let her mind wander and wonder what if. What if they'd been a little bit braver, risked the censure of society, their co-workers, his kids, and tried to make a real attempt at a relationship, one conducted out in the open, rather than in the shadows. Would she be standing there beside him today? Or would it have ended badly, either between them because they weren't suited, or because of the fallout of Barry and Iris potentially not accepting them?

There's no way to know, and most days, she's made her peace with that. 

Today, she wonders. 

And when she hugs him after the ceremony, when he holds her for a little longer than anyone else, when he looks into her eyes and she sees a flash of something that she hasn't seen in years, she knows that, however happy he is, he's wondering too.


End file.
